Old Wounds
by JillDragon
Summary: Starscream finally gets to tell his side of the story about his relationship with Skyfire. What happened to him after Skyfire disappeared? And why is he so unwilling to make peace with his former friend? Set in Keaalu's AU.


**Author's Notes:** This is the second fic I've wrote set in Keaalu's 'Blue' AU and it is a companion piece to my short fic _Unaccompanied Minors_. This story takes place somewhere in the middle of ch. 22 of _Warped_ and this will probably make a heck of a lot more sense if you read it first: http:// www. fanfiction .net/s/4551394/1/ (remove the spaces).

**Disclaimer:** The OC Forceps and the AU setting both belong to Keaalu and are used here with her permission. Starscream, Skyfire, and everyone and everything else belong to Hasbro (not me).

* * *

With careful precision Forceps tweaked a pair of hair-thin wires into position on the power-regulator that was part of the fusion core she was working on to replace the damaged one in Starscream's leg. Initially she had run into problems as traditionally the Autobots were a ground-based force and had little experience with flyers. The Aerialbots were the obvious exception; however their flight systems differed significantly from the Seekers. She knew _how_ the thruster assembly worked, having two (or rather one and a half) working examples to use, however altering the Autobot-built parts of fit and assembling them correctly was proving to be quite the challenge.

In the end Skyfire had proven to be an unexpected help; the shuttle had admitted that medicine and engineering weren't his strengths but he knew a surprising amount about Seeker anatomy. When there were just the two of you alone in uncharted space, it had been necessary to be able to perform emergency repairs on each other, he had explained.

_I wonder if his knowledge was for _purely_ practical reasons_, Forceps mused, giving Skyfire a sidelong glance. Not that she was going to ever ask him, the situation between Skyfire and Starscream was volatile enough as it was.

The medlab door swished open and she looked up to see Starscream standing in the doorway and judging from his expression he wasn't happy to see Skyfire assisting her. Skyfire stepped back looking visibly tense, the expression on his faceplates unreadable. There was, however, no mistaking Starscream's expression; it spoke louder than words: _What the slag are _you_ doing here?! Get out!_

"Ah…I should take my leave," Skyfire told her politely, packing up his tools, "It should be pretty straight forward from here on in."

Starscream wordlessly stepped aside to let him pass. Skyfire greeted him with a wary nod; his wings hiked up and tense as he passed within the Seeker's range. Starscream said nothing, his angry red glare practically boring a hole into the shuttle's platting.

When he had left Forceps put down her welding laser with an exasperated huff. "A little politeness might not go amiss," she informed him pointedly.

Starscream ignored the comment, "What was _he_ doing in here?" he asked suspiciously, "_Skywarp_ knows more engineering than he does," the curl of his lip showing what he thought of the shuttle's abilities.

"For your information he was helping me with the layout of your thruster assembly," Forceps snapped, fed up with his sour mood, "For Primus sake, Starscream what is your problem?!"

"What's the matter surgeon?" Starscream retorted hands on his hips, "Are we having second thoughts? Are you regretting ever putting the big, bad Decepticon back together? Maybe you're thinking how much _easier_ things would be for you if you'd just left me there to bleed out on the street." He took several steps towards her, his posture vaguely threatening and Forceps had to use all her self control to keep from backing away instinctively.

"Knock it off!" she growled. Turning the heatlance in her hand onto the lowest setting she jabbed it into the tip of Starscream's wing.

He jumped back with a yelp, "Ow! _Ow!_ That's not fair!" he whined, his predatory expression dissolving into a pout.

"I know you're having trouble coping what with Skywarp being a handful, but stop trying to push your problems onto me!" the surgeon said, giving him her best no-nonsense glare. She braced both arms against the table and leaned over the worktable until she was almost nose to nose with the Seeker. "Do you understand?"

He gave a hiss of frustration, "Yes, I understand 'Be a good, biddable little Seeker, Starscream, or you'll see what the inside of a recycling mill looks like!' I know the drill. These Autoscum are no better than Megatron. Never mind I have to look at that traitor's face everyday, never mind that I get to hear about how slagging _sorry_ the other Autobots feel for him having to put up with me – like they actual care about more than their free ride! Hah!"

"I think you need to calm down and stop taking everything Skyfire says and does as personal insult," Forceps told him dryly.

"Personal?! How can I _not_ take it personally!? Do you want to know what happened to me when he disappeared? _Do you?!_" at the last few words his voice rose to a near-shriek.

Forceps crossed her arms and sighed, she didn't need more drama on top of everything else, but she sensed that Starscream needed to vent more than anything else right now. It was better than letting him bottle it all up until he exploded again and next time they might not be so lucky. Someone could potentially _die_ whether it was Starscream, Skyfire, or some bystander and wouldn't _that_ send everything Pitwise? "Alright, so tell me," she said shortly.

"They said I murdered him," he spat, "The officials at the Academy. Those slagging rich _bastards_ were just waiting for an excuse to bring me down. They were jealous of me – oh yes, and they were afraid - after all Seekers aren't supposed to be intelligent." There was a taut grin on his face that was little more than a baring of teeth.

"They put me 'on trial' – some trial! The verdict was already decided and no one listened to a thing I told then. They were 'lenient' in their punishment, or so they claimed," Starscream sneered, "Because of my age instead of imprisoning me they 'kindly' opted to strip me of my title and credentials and made sure no reputable institute would hire me instead. Then they shipped me off to Kaon and dumped me there, never mind that I was from Vos originally! I was a criminal and criminals belonged in Kaon."

Forceps couldn't keep from wincing, even before the war Kaon had the reputation of being one of Cybertron's roughest cities – enough to put Deixar with all its crime and poverty to shame.

Starscream saw her expression and glared defiantly, "Yes, it was the Pit, but I did what I had to to survive. So I leaped at joining the Decepticons when I got the chance. After all," his expression turned bitter, "I was already a murderer – what difference would a few more lives here and there make? And I was able to get back at the cowards who dared turned me out," he hissed, "I got to see the looks on their faces as their beloved Academy burned and their horror when they realized just who was visiting this vengeance on them."

"Wouldn't Skyfire be horrified to know that every life I took, every city I burnt, every mech I tortured I did for him? Everything was all because of him."

It was the expression of gleeful cruelty on his face that repulsed Forceps more than the crimes he'd listed, but she managed to keep her composure. The female had to admit there was a sense of sickly, horrified fascination with the vitriolic torrent of words Starscream was letting out. It hit surprisingly close to home as well and she couldn't help wondering what might have happened to _her_ if she had decided to stay with the Decepticon cause. What might she have done? What might she have turned into? It was enough to make her feel some reluctant empathy towards Starscream. She was about to say something, but Starscream spoke first.

"And then…and I then, after I'd almost managed to forget about him, I found him again. Alive. Primus I was so _happy_," he admitted, an unsteady note in his high pitched voice as he got up and started to pace around the room. His mercurial moods were shifting so fast that it was hard to keep up.

"But what did he do?" Starscream spat, "The moment he saw that I wasn't living up to his lofty standards he tossed me aside like I was so much trash. After all, I clearly wasn't good enough to stand beside the noble Skyfire! And then he rubs it all in my face by joining the enemy even though they treat him like some…_troop-ferrying drone_. Then that white moron has the utter _gall_ to come up to me now and tell me that he's willing to 'forgive and forget' – ARGH!" in a quick motion he seized a spanner and flung it viciously against the wall.

There was silence and then the door opened and an irritable-looking Ratchet poked his head into the room, "What's going on?" he asked Forceps, shooting a suspicious look at Starscream who just glowered back at him, wings bristled. The medic glanced at the sizable new dent in the wall, "Is everything alright in here?"

"Things are fine Ratchet, I've got it under control," Forceps told him quickly. _We don't really need an audience, _she commed him silently, _So a little privacy would be appreciated if you don't mind._

Alright," Ratchet said, sounding rather reluctant, "Call me if you need anything." _Or if he gets uppity again, _the Autobot medic commed back.

When he left Starscream resumed his restless pacing, deliberately avoiding looking at her.

"I appreciate that your circuits are riled but that's no excuse to be throwing things," Forceps broke the silence, "I trained that bad habit out of your niece and nephew and I can train it out of you too," she said half humorous, half threatening, trying to distract the Seeker enough to bring him down from his murderous rage.

_Slag, I'm no good at this psychological counseling,_ she thought, _Why couldn't he pick someone else to dump on?_ But he didn't have anyone else, did he? Thundercracker, whom she suspected might normally fill that role, was missing and Skywarp was already driving everyone up the walls with his fretting and his impulsive desire to go tearing off after Siphon.

"Come here and sit down," she prompted as gently as she could, patting the bench, "I need to take a final scan of your leg to make sure everything will match up."

Wordlessly Starscream slumped down onto the bench, and the surgeon didn't miss the bleak look on his faceplates as she began her examination. "You know, we could have done great things together," he said, sounding detached, "Together we would have been strong enough to finally get rid of that slagger Megatron and then we'd be free to do whatever we wanted." He took a deep, shuddering intake, "I could have, _would_ have, given him anything he wanted. A position as my second, charge of the science division – anything. Why couldn't the fool see that?"

"Not everyone sees things the same way," Forceps told him, turning off the scanner, satisfied that everything was in order and the thruster complex was ready to be installed. "It's one of the few all-encompassing 'truths' I still believe in."

Starscream eyed her thoughtfully for a long moment but didn't argue, and the green female wasn't sure if that was a good sign or a bad one.

"You know," he said, staring down at his hands, "He once meant the universe to me, Sepp. And you know what really sears me? After all is said and done, how little I clearly meant to him." The last few words were muffled as the seeker put his head in his hands, looking forlorn.

Forceps wasn't sure what to say - what _does_ someone say to something like that? She reached out cautiously and rested her hand on his shoulder. When he didn't shrug off the gesture she squeezed it gently, trying to convey some sort of reassurance.


End file.
